London to John O* Groat's. 25 



will be adopted for saturating millions of acres in Great 

 Britain with the millions of tons of manurial matter 

 that have hitherto blackened and poisoned the rivers of 

 the country on their wasteful way to the sea. This will 

 be only an additional work for the farm engines now in 

 operation, accomplished with but little increased ex- 

 pense. A single fact may illustrate the irrigating 

 capacity of Mr. Mechi's machinery. It throws upon a 

 field a quantity of the fertilising fluid equal to one inch 

 of rainfall at a time, or 100 tons per imperial acre. 

 And., as a proof of how deep it penetrates, the drains 

 run freely with it, thus showing conclusively that the 

 subsoil has been well saturated, a point of vital im- 

 portance to the crop. 



Deep tillage is another speciality that distinguished 

 the Tiptree Farm regime at the beginning, in which 

 Mr. Mechi led, and in which he has been followed by 

 the farmers of the county, although few have come up 

 abreast of him as yet in the system. 



Here, then, are four specific departments of improve- 

 ment in agricultural industry which the Alderman has 

 introduced. Every one of them has been ridiculed as 

 an impracticable and useless innovation in its turn. 

 Three of them have already been adopted, and virtually 

 incorporated with agricultural science and economy; 

 and the fourth, or irrigation by steam power, bids fair 



